Government schools have consistently grappled with the problem of shortage of teachers. However, a recent observation during the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting of the Ministry of Education points out that Karnataka has more than 28,000 "surplus" teachers at the elementary school level.
According to the PAB, the state has 28,548 surplus teachers in elementary schools. The PAB also suggests that the government consider the rationalisation of teachers, to ensure availability of the required number of teachers in all schools.
In essence, the Centre suggests redistribution of the existing staff in a uniform manner. The meeting also noted that the Karnataka government had identified 6,836 surplus teachers in 2018-19 and redeployed them.
Experts and government officials alike pointed out that this calculation by the Ministry was not reflective of the actual number of teachers on the ground. Some even saw this as a ploy by the Centre to restrict funding.
Speaking to DH, Niranjanaradhya V P, Senior Fellow, Centre for Child and Law, NLSIU, said the Ministry's perception came from "wrong interpretation" of the Right to Education Act (RTE). As per the Act, for classes 1 to 5, there have to be a minimum of two teachers for any number of students between 1 and 60. For schools where the strength is above 150, a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30 will be considered. "The Ministry is applying the 1:30 ratio for all schools. As a result, they are finding excess teachers in schools with lower student enrollment. They need to understand that every school should have minimum teachers. Or at least ensure that there is one teacher per subject," he explained.
If teachers are taken away from schools with lower enrollment, their quality will further deteriorate, leading to the closure of more government schools, he pointed out the larger risk.
Basavaraj Gurikar, vice president of All India Teachers’ Federation added that there were more than 30,000 teacher vacancies in the state waiting to be filled.
Principal Secretary (Primary & Secondary Education) SR Umashankar further explained that the current recruitment norms prescribed graduation as a prerequisite for teachers teaching class 6 to 8, while the earlier norms required graduation only for class 8. Owing to this change in cadre seeking higher qualification, those teachers in the existing system without graduation are also falling under the "surplus" category. One way for the government to set this right was by redeploying those with graduation to the higher classes. The other was to conduct recruitment where necessary, the official said.